A Virtual GIS Computer Lab for On-Campus and Distance Education Students

Courses in geographic information systems (GIS) are now firmly established within the mainstream curricula of university programs world-wide. Recent changes in information technology have challenged instructors not only in terms of what they teach, but more importantly in terms of how they teach GIS. We established an interactive virtual GIS computer lab (VGISlab) for a graduate level course offered to on-campus (OC) and distance education (DE) students at the University of Florida. Our objectives were (i) to build a virtual learning environment that provides 24 hour access to a rich resource of synchronous and asynchronous learning tools and (ii) to evaluate the efficacy of different e-learning tools for OC and DE students in context of learning outcomes. We implemented the following learning mechanisms to improve the abstract geographic thinking and reasoning skills of students: (i) Explanation based learning, (ii) Redundancy-based learning, (iii) Learning as response-strengthening, (iv) Analogy learning, (v) Learning based on problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and (vi) Abstraction learning. Results from a survey showed that DE and OC students' learning outcomes were comparable and that the VGISlab provided a framework to improve the abstract geographic thinking skills facilitating to understand complex environmental systems and their underlying phenomena.

S. Grunwald

Soil and Water Science Department

SGrunwald@mail.ifas.ufl.edu

V. Ramasundaram

Computer and Information Science and Engineering

D.K. Jesseman

Institute of Food and Agriculture (IFAS) - Information Technology (IT)

University of Florida, FL

Gainesville, FL

Copyright North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Dec 2004
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